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TORONTO -- Dwane Casey saw it as a sign of maturity on the part of his young team. After a first half in which he thought "the lid was on the basket," the Toronto Raptors coach watched his squad mount a second half surge to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 98-91. "Thats another step in our growth," Casey said after Friday nights win at Air Canada Centre. "Last year at this time, if wed have missed shots like that wed have caved in. "But we kept grinding it, grinding it, grinding it and thats what you have to do when the shots arent falling." The Raptors (30-25) shot a woeful 32.7 per cent from the field in the first half and trailed 44-39. But, with second-year centre Jonas Valanciunas leading the way, Toronto shot an impressive 16-for 23, or 69.5 per cent, in the third quarter on the way to winning their fourth game in five starts. "We said we need to pick it up, we need to come out with energy," Valanciunas, who finished with 18 points and eight rebounds, said of the talk in the locker room at halftime. "Thats what it was all about. "We shot really bad the first half but we did a better job the second half and thats what matters." Valanciunas scored 10 of his 14 second-half points in the third quarter, including five in a row during a 4:07 stretch that saw the Raptors turn a one-point deficit into a 10-point lead. Second-year guard Terrence Ross had a team-high 20 points as the Raptors snapped the Cavaliers (22-34) six-game winning streak and widened their lead to 3-1/2 games over the idle Brooklyn Nets atop the NBAs Atlantic Division. With the win, the Raptors equalled the third-fastest time theyve reached the 30-win mark in team history, just one game off the best mark of 54 games in both the 2009-10 and 2007-08 seasons. The Raptors, who have missed the playoffs in each of the past five seasons, didnt win their 30th game until their 78th outing last year. Although Ross led the Raptors in scoring, it was his defensive play against Cleveland guard Kyrie Irving, who was named MVP of last weekends NBA All-Star Game, that drew rave reviews from his teammates. "Defensively, hes always been impressive, and hes getting better," Toronto guard Kyle Lowry said after Irving was held to 3-for-16 shooting on his way to 17 points. "I told him that on the bench tonight." Lowry had 14 points, nine assists and six rebounds. DeMar DeRozan added 14 points and five assists. Clevelands Luol Deng led all scorers with 21 points and added 11 rebounds while Tristan Thompson of Brampton, Ont., added 13 points and nine assists and Anthony Bennett, also from Brampton, who last spring became the first Canadian to ever go first overall in the NBA draft, had nine points in his first game here. "We just had to pick up our defensive intensity," Ross said of the message delivered at halftime. "The biggest thing, we were coming out, playing too lackadaisical and we had to pick that up." Toronto outscored Cleveland 37-21 in the third quarter to take control. Valanciunas made a layup with 7:22 to go in the quarter to put the Raptors up for good at 53-52. After Valanciunas and Amir Johnson combined for just four points in the first half, Casey said he gave the big men "a wake-up call" going into the second half and they responded at both ends of the court. "We reminded them theres more to the game than the offensive end," Casey said. "You can get rebounds. You can get back in transition. You can challenge shots and you can go vertical. "You can do a lot of different things other than make shots and I thought the second half (they) worked at it and got it done." Stitched Marlins Jerseys . Altidore strained his left hamstring in the Americans opener against Ghana on June 16 and didnt play in their next two games. "We dont know how much because we need to see how hes going, but hes available," U. Cheap Marlins Jerseys . McCutchen hit his first home run in over a month, doubled twice and scored two runs to help the Pirates beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-3 on Sunday and take three of four from the defending NL West champions. https://www.cheapmarlinsjerseys.us/. Pillar is batting .305 with 17 extra-base hits, 19 RBI and five stolen bases in 34 games for Buffalo this season. The right-handed hitter had an International League high, 18-game hitting streak this season and currently owns an IL high 26-game on base streak. Marlins Jerseys 2019 .com) - Theres nothing better for a team than to send out the staff ace in the most important game of the season. Miami Marlins Gear .com) - Calgary Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau has been selected as the NHLs Rookie of the Month for December, the league announced Friday.Canada kept their undefeated streak going by beating Great Britain 9-6 in womens curling to push their record to 3-0 at the Sochi Olympics on Wednesday. Canada, led by Jennifer Jones, faced their first real test coming off dominant wins over 9-2 over China and 9-3 over Sweden on Monday and Tuesday respectively. Eve Muirhead, the 23-year old skip who led Scotland to a 2013 World Championship, followed through with expectations to lead Great Britain to a strong challenge against Canada. The two skips battled fiercely right into the final end. The skips battled hard where Jones tossed 85% and Muirhead went for 83%. There was very little separation between the opponents early in the match and that was the continued trend throughout. Up 8-6 going into the final end, Canada looked to be into as Great Britain was looking at scoring a double until Joness got a clutch take out, leaving just one stone near the button.dddddddddddd Muirhead had the hammer with :30 remaining, but the result of her triple take out attempt went awry, resulting in a steal of one for Canada. The biggest Canadian highlight was the moment right before the conclusion of the fifth end where Muirheads final stone sat just short of the rings to play guard for a potential steal of two.But Jones stuck back, shooting a major take out which earned three points to bring it to 6-3 lead for Canada. Britain pulled it closed after six ends, bringing it to 6-5, but Jones was able to to keep distance securing a single in the seventh end to stay up by two. Muirhread came out of a tough eighth end, finishing with two of the four stones in the house but only could muster one point. Canada continues in the round robin on Thursday as they take on Switzerland. ' ' '